Dave I agree with that there is nothing wrong with British Folk music, However I have a BUT as well, I can understand why the media and people involved in the folk scene take the micky out of it,it's the way a large majority of folk have presented it (note I say the majority as there are some great exceptions out there)E.G. in a pub sing around in festival fringe events, where the vast number of the audiance are new to folk music and you get some one singing a ballard 20 verses long and thus completly killing the atmosphere. Also the same can be said about a great number of Clubs I come across, where an artist is giving it everything only for the audiance to sit there like cardboard cut outs, I don't expect them to be rocking in the aisles, but sometimes I really feel for the artist particularly when they are asking for audiance participation, I want to shake them (the audiance), quite often I wonder whether it's a church I'm in or a folk club.